


22

by FloreatCastellum



Series: Slice of Life One-Shots [15]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Orphans, Parent-Child Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 08:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19169833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloreatCastellum/pseuds/FloreatCastellum
Summary: 'I’m older than my parents now. They were 21 when they died.’





	22

‘Did you have a good birthday?’ he heard her murmur.

Their skin was still slightly slick with sweat; his finger traced easily at the base of her spine, his own body in that wonderful heavy, relaxed state.

'Mhmm. I think that was the best bit,’ he murmured back, and he felt her grin against his chest.

'Well I should hope so. Happy birthday again.’ He smiled, but didn’t answer. After a few moments, Ginny spoke again.

'Are you sure you’re all right, though? You didn’t seem yourself. Are you having a kind of quarter life crisis?’

He chuckled. 'Something like that. I’m fine. It’s stupid. I had a nice day.’

She propped herself up on her elbow and looked at him, her arched eyebrow just visible in the darkness.

'It’s really stupid,’ he said reassuringly. 'You’ll only laugh at me.’

'I won’t promise not to, but I doubt I will.’

He hesitated, and then, his voice slow and measured, said, 'I’m older than my parents now. They were 21 when they died.’

He saw her nod slightly, and wait.

'It’s really stupid,’ he said again.

'It’s not,’ she said. 'I forgot how young they were.’

'Yeah.’ He hesitated again, the words lingering painfully in his mouth. He had been thinking it all day, feeling a weird urge to tell someone, but too embarrassed to voice the ridiculous thought. But Ginny waited patiently - she knew, somehow, that there was more.

'When I found out about all of this, magic and wizards and everything, some stupid part of me always… not hoped, but kind of… there was always a tiny part of me that imagined them coming back.’ He could feel his face burning now, he was glad the room was dark. 'And, you know, things like the mirror of erised and ghosts flying about and priori incantatum and stuff didn’t really help me… Not imagine that.’

'So you’re realising now, properly, that they wont?’ asked Ginny, with remarkable understanding for something so stupid.

'No,’ he assured her quickly. 'I never thought they would, or anything, I know it’s not possible. I just… This is so stupid,’ he said again, feeling incredibly hot despite his nakedness.

'I don’t think it’s stupid,’ she said. 'Go on.’

'I can’t imagine it properly anymore,’ he said at last. 'Because it would be awkward.’

'Awkward?’

'If they came back somehow. Because I would be older than them. They would be trying to parent a fully grown man that was older than them. It doesn’t make sense anymore. It’s stupid. I know they’re not going to!’ he added fiercely. 'I don’t really think-’

'I know you don’t,’ she said quietly. 'I won’t pretend to understand fully, because I can’t, but it doesn’t sound stupid to me.’

'It’s pathetic,’ he muttered.

'It’s not. It makes sense you would imagine that from time to time.’

'It was always some forgotten relative before,’ he said, the words tumbling out before he could stop them. 'When I lived at the Dursleys. Some lost uncle or something that would come and take me away. And then it was my parents when I got to school, and then it was imagining living with Sirius, and then it was my parents again.’

She nodded, and kissed him. I’m sorry,’ she whispered. 'I suppose it’s just part of getting older.’

'Yes,’ he said. He considered for a moment, and there was a small, fluttering realisation in his chest. 'I don’t need to be taken away anymore though. No need to have running away fantasies.’

Now she smiled. 'No,’ she said. 'Definitely not. But I’m going to keep you here just in case you try.’


End file.
